Fall from grace, and miss the ground
by expletive deleted
Summary: 5927. In another timeline Tsuna's inheritance goes differently. During an argument about it, he finally makes it totally clear that he doesn't want to be boss. How can Gokudera make things right? ...And why does the inheritance include lions and clowns?


******Summary:** In another timeline, the Vongola Inheritance goes at a slower pace. It leads to an argument where Tsuna makes it unmistakably clear that he's never wanted anything to do with the Mafia, and Gokudera has no idea how to make things right. The newly inherited sword swallower doesn't help much; luckily, the lion does.  
******Rating:** M - sexy times, language  
******Note:** The title is inspired by a line in Live's song "Run to the Water". There are mild spoilers touching on chapters 157, 162, and 283. Constructive criticism is welcome.

* * *

******Fall from grace (and miss the ground)**

Hayato Gokudera would be history.

The boy cobbled together a new name that he could stand to call himself and swore to the wind that they'd all know it someday, and his fame wouldn't owe anything to anyone. He ran off the estate that had been home and went further than he'd been allowed to go before, took money from the accounts his father didn't know he'd learnt to access, bought a train ticket and went looking for something to make his own, to put between himself and what lay behind him.

- o - o -

"It's starting today, Tenth. History!"

Tsuna backed up with a hand over his heart, and Gokudera realised he'd pretty much jumped at him. From behind the wall. He'd been too excited to think. Before he could apologise, Reborn leapt onto the gatepost and said, "Good morning, Gokudera."

"Reborn-san!" He said in greeting, excitement returning full force. "When will we go see it?"

"___Later_!" Tsuna said.

"What's happening later?" They turned to see Yamamoto, jogging up the sidewalk and waving hi.

"The tour of Tsuna's mansion," said Reborn, and jumped from the gatepost onto Yamamoto's shoulder.

"Wait, that's today?" Yamamoto said, looking dismayed as they began the walk to Namimori High. "I've got a make-up test after school."

"So cancel it! This is important!" Gokudera said.

"I need these marks. I'm not concentrating enough on schoolwork lately. There always seems to be something better to do."

"Exactly! So is this. Far better. The best thing all year!"

"You're pumped up!" Yamamoto gave him a thump on the shoulders, and Gokudera was in such a good mood he didn't give a damn. "I guess it is exciting, seeing Tsuna's inheritance."

"It's weird," Tsuna said, frowning. "I mean, it's not like anything's happened to the Ninth... I don't need to inherit right now. It feels like bad luck." He ducked his head. "It ___is_."

"You call this an inheritance?" Reborn resolutely did not look at him. "It's hardly worthy of the term. There's a lot more coming."

Gokudera stiffened. He let his glance slide to Yamamoto, and saw that he ___was_ looking at Tsuna, all concern. Damn it. Sometimes he wished Reborn wouldn't be so blunt - the position of boss was a huge responsibility, a burden, even, and lately the Tenth was realising that more and more.

It was great to have him talking again. He'd been really quiet for weeks. When the Ninth had requested (Gokudera hated how the orders were called 'requests') that the tenth generation deal with certain yakuza groups around Japan it had taken a lot out of him. They hadn't fought that seriously since the ring scramble matches.

No wonder Tsuna had been tired, was what Gokudera thought, but Yamamoto had the theory that he'd been avoiding everybody. Ridiculous, because he came up with that theory while they were walking from the Tenth's house after spending a day with him and the girls - but after that it struck Gokudera that Tsuna always seemed small lately. Physically turned in on himself. The silences didn't seem that bad, because ... sometimes they had a particular way of becoming comfortable, and he knew the Tenth appreciated that. But the way Tsuna was constantly hunched up and turned away from them - that was nothing good.

He jostled Yamamoto so he'd stop making the Tenth feel awkward with his staring. Yamamoto took the cue and slung an arm around Tsuna. "Do you believe in bad luck? I didn't think you were superstitious. Anyway, you could look at this as a really big present."

"And it's definitely not bad luck!" Gokudera said. "I've never heard of cases like that. It could even be good luck to have the blessing of whoever you're inheriting from while they're alive. There's less chance of vengeful ghosts."

Tsuna started replying and then looked like some unpleasant memory occurred to him. "That is true, I guess," he said, and muttered, "Ugh, Romeo..."

Yamamoto laughed. "Hey, kid, is Tsuna's granddad giving him a haunted house?" he asked and ducked Gokudera's sideswipe.

"Find out when they tell you it's time to go see the place."

A few steps more and then Tsuna stopped, and they turned to look at him. "They're not calling you?"

"What, do you need a babysitter?" Reborn said. "You need to take care of yourself sometime, useless Tsuna."

"Haha! A kid being the babysitter. Who ever heard of something like that?" Yamamoto tapped down the brim of Reborn's hat, lowering it over his eyes so that Reborn had to reach up to right it and give him a mild glare.

The infamous hitman was pouting. He probably couldn't help it, what with the baby face, but even Gokudera would admit it didn't look all that intimidating.

It got rid of a little tension, and Tsuna took a deep breath and they resumed their walk. The baseball idiot really had a talent. Gokudera found he didn't mind the thought as much as he might have a few months ago, and smiled. He also had a good method.

Gokudera lit a cigarette so he'd be ready for possible trouble along the way. Tsuna had looked nervous at hearing that Reborn wouldn't be the middleman; it was pretty much the first time the Arcobaleno wouldn't be there as a guide. The whole tenth generation had more responsibility now. He would live up to it.

Once they were in class he made do with keeping his lighter in hand. He flicked the lid and daydreamed, lulled by the teacher's droning. Whenever he turned to smile at the Tenth, he was slumped over his desk. That proved it, he really was in a state of exhaustion ... or maybe Yamamoto's obvious ___brain disease_ had infected him, because that dumbass was also sleeping. He already had a make-up test!

Gokudera threw paper pellets at him until he woke, and then a few more for good measure. He stopped after Yamamoto, looking intrigued, threw some back. (It was going to bruise. How could paper make you bruise?)

A groan came from the Tenth's direction. Gokudera nearly whipped out dynamite, but managed to restrain himself to just turning around. Tsuna was looking at his cellphone under the desk and grimacing.

"Sawada-kun?" the teacher started, and Gokudera said, "The Tenth's stomach hurts! I'll take him to Shamal!" He had Tsuna across the room before he'd finished speaking. He motioned for Yamamoto to join them, and Yamamoto sleepily waved back.

Gokudera couldn't bring himself to care. He righted Tsuna before they were even out of earshot of the classroom. "Well, let's get going!"

Tsuna shook his arm off. "No! Not yet. The message said they'd be ready at twelve-thirty."

Gokudera stared at his watch. "It's only half-past ten!" The moment was an impossible two hours away. Ridiculous! Unbearable! The second-counter on his watch went up one figure, such a measly measure that it might as well have gone backwards. "We can go now. We don't want to be late!"

He looked up for confirmation, and found that Tsuna was down the hall. "Need some air," Tsuna called, striding towards the staircase to the roof.

Gokudera looked at him and then in the direction of the exit, and then back to the stairs Tsuna had started climbing. It wouldn't hurt to be early - but if it was the roof, then...

He hurried up the stairs, almost fast enough to catch Tsuna up. As he barrelled through the door Gokudera looked around and grinned. It was warm for autumn, and the day was clear with a refreshing, blustery breeze. Even nature was playing along.

It was the kind of day when the Tenth would give thoughtful looks up at the good weather and go along with any suggestion on what to do, or start giving some of his own. Right now he had his head pressed against the chain link fence and his eyes on the ground, though.

Tsuna was well aware of what came closer as they neared graduation. When things got like this - and they did more often than before, since the start of the year - it was Gokudera's job to remind Tsuna of the good side of things.

Technically, he just had to stand there.

It worked most times. Tsuna got close-mouthed about serious troubles, so Gokudera would go stand by him and wrestle over a host of careful, caring, tactful words to coax out the problem until his stomach was a knot of bile, and then before he'd managed to say one of them Tsuna would push off the fence, looking less tired and asking if he wanted to go.

Once when Tsuna started to move off, he'd told Gokudera, "Thank you". So Gokudera went each time he thought Tsuna had ducked class to go to the roof, even the times when Yamamoto had already gone up and even though he was never sure he was doing enough.

He leaned against the fence and stood quietly for as long as he could. It wasn't long at all. "What are we going to do about the baseball idiot? We can't let him keep going between the family and this other crap like it makes no difference." He waved his hand at nothing in particular - the rooftop, the school grounds, the town, the world.

"He has to decide for himself."

"But he still acts like he doesn't know what this is about!"

Tsuna's fingers fidgeted in the fence links. "I guess there's a decision in that."

"He's the Vongola Rain Guardian. That's not something he can act like a dumbass about," Gokudera said, thinking of that big grin as Yamamoto flicked paper pellets.

"He can't be forced to be Rain Guardian, either."

Gokudera blinked in surprise, and got a crazy image of Reborn holding a gun to Yamamoto's head, on Tsuna's orders. No. He couldn't be forced. Then it was a matter of training twice as hard to make up for the exposed flank. Until they found a decent replacement, maybe, and Yamamoto realised what he'd lose by goofing off.

"The Vongola will be safe," he announced, and then hastily swallowed plans of extra training. Tsuna could get so worried. "There are more than enough people we could call in to act as back-up guardians. Basil's supposed to be reliable. Maybe there are more possibilities at the mansion!" He rattled the fence out of sheer need to do something. "Reborn-san didn't say anything about what to expect?"

"We won't have to go live there or anything. I'm almost ___surprised_."

"The place is for business use, right? It's about time we took care of official meetings. We need to get used to that kind of thing!" Meetings would probably always be made up of them and a bunch of the old bosses, and then the Vongola could tell those ancient carcasses where to get off... "We should get going, Tenth! The place is outside of town, after all."

"What does it matter if we're late? It's not like the people there are dangerous, like other Mafia people we'll have to meet. Just servants."

Gokudera turned and frowned slowly, not recognising that mutinous tone. It didn't look like the Tenth believed what he was saying either. He looked ... scared. Angry too, but Gokudera saw first what unnerved him most.

"It'll be fine..." he said, not sure what was wrong. He shuffled closer to Tsuna, moving against the fence like a fugitive in a movie. "We just need to make a good impression! I've heard people say a reputation should be built from the ground up." It had sounded stupid when he was a kid, but after being one of the lowest members of the Vongola, Gokudera knew it could get dangerous to treat low-ranking people badly. At least, he'd really wished he could make it dangerous, but he hadn't been so stupid that he'd attack the family that had taken him in.

"Huh, am I supposed to make a ___good_ impression? I should probably shoot the head butler or something."

"Tenth!"

"Well, what kind of reputation should a Mafia boss have?" Tsuna snapped.

Gokudera stood closer. "What's...?" ___What's wrong?_ He interrupted himself as the answer to Tsuna's question occurred to him. "Yours! The reputation that you have now ... you only need to show them who you are."

"I don't even know those people."

"You can't know everyone, Tenth. Look at Cavallone; he's got over six thousand people working for him." He thought over the times he'd sneaked into his father's meetings, Shamal's side commentary, and observations he'd made in the families he'd had contact with.

"The thing to do is make sure that the people in the family, all the different groups, learn to take care of each other, even while you're taking care of them. That's how you make things run smoothly, so it's good for everybody." At all levels - in the casinos and the sham companies, the research labs, and the ___libraries_...

"That's how we'll make our legacy," Gokudera said, gritting his dreams out through his teeth because he could say it, since it was the Tenth. He'd get it. "We'll be so goddamn good to the Vongola they won't know what hit them. We're going to make history!"

"We'll definitely be history, all right," Tsuna muttered.

The tone made Gokudera blink hard enough that his dreams cleared for a second, but then he processed the words and grinned so that his face hurt. "That's the spirit!"

It wasn't, because Tsuna stared miserably over the town. Gokudera reached out, willing himself not to be tentative. It helped Tsuna to have a reassuring arm around the shoulders, and then Gokudera could watch him smile.

"It doesn't matter," Tsuna said loudly, jerking away. Gokudera's hand froze in mid-air and he looked over in confusion. Tsuna met his gaze for a millisecond and then looked down, chest expanding visibly with a deep breath. "We have to go."

"Are you worried? You don't have to be. You can handle it."

"I don't want to!"

Tsuna hadn't said anything like that in a while - since last year, Gokudera thought, and even then around the time they started their first term. He'd gained confidence over time. "Tenth, I know you'll do fine!"

"It's not ___that_."

Gokudera put all his sincerity in his voice. "I'm not just saying it. If you think about everything you've accomplished so far, then it's obv—"

"I said it's not about that!"

Furious. Gokudera remembered that voice best from when it rang out above flames and Belphegor's hissing chuckles. He stared at Tsuna.

"I've never wanted to be the boss and you don't even ___know_ that! I'm stuck in this Mafia business for the rest of my life, and you ... all you ever say is, 'it's so great', and ... you... I don't ___want to_! That's it!"

But...

There had to be arguments and examples to remind Tsuna that it wasn't true, but the memories of years went blank. Tsuna ___was_ part of the Mafia. Had been since Gokudera met him. That's it.

"Gokudera! I don't want anything to do with this and I never did! Do you even get that?"

Tsuna turned and strode away, fists clenched. He wrenched open the door that led downstairs and ran down, the noise reverberating up to the roof.

Gokudera stared at the open door in bewilderment for too long, because the clatter of footsteps was interrupted by a long, startled squeak of rubber on concrete, and then a yell over the sound of something larger than feet banging down the stairs. Then silence.

He nearly fell downstairs too with how fast he ran. Tsuna was three-quarters of the way down, clutching the railing and blinking away shock. "Ow-ow-ow," he said, grimacing at his right leg.

Its awkward angle made Gokudera yell so loud it echoed. "Tenth!"

But it was only sprained at the ankle. Tsuna pulled himself up by the railing and turned his leg this way and that to find a comfortable way to put his foot down, wincing.

"I'll take you to Shamal's office! I can bandage it!"

"It's not that bad... I can walk."

He walked more easily with help. So Gokudera focused on helping and Tsuna seemed to focus on walking, and it was surreal how normal the motions were while the silence hissed in Gokudera's head.

"That feels better," Tsuna finally said, once the white wrap was pinned around his ankle.

"Don't wiggle it!" Shamal said from the desk, having ignored the magazine he held open to watch Gokudera do the bandaging. "You'll really feel that around tomorrow. Not too bad, Hayato." The magazine went in front of his face again.

Tsuna looked at Shamal and then turned his head back to look past Gokudera. "I guess ... it's time we got back to class," he said at last.

"Then we really might be late for our appointment," Gokudera said. Tsuna finally looked at him, but as if he was a traitor. "We ___will_! It's outside town and there might be traffic. We have to go."

"I don't—!" Tsuna glanced at Shamal and hopped off the bed. He stumbled and Gokudera caught him by the arm, and he jerked it away.

"Are you off, then?" Shamal asked, nosiness blaring in his voice as he pretended to read.

"None of your business!" Gokudera snarled.

They made slow progress to the front of the school, and Tsuna sat on the pavement as Gokudera called a taxi cab. Gokudera thought of calling the others, and imagined having to deal with Ryohei and Lambo's noise, Yamamoto's laughter, Hibari's surliness, and incongruous second-hand smirks on Chrome's face. He looked at Tsuna, whose expression was tight and pale and futilely furious.

Reborn hadn't said they all needed to go. He'd even accepted Yamamoto's pathetic excuse. Gokudera pocketed his phone.

He and Tsuna sat at opposite ends of the cab's back seat, Gokudera staring at his knuckles and waiting for the least cue.

"We're going to be really freaking early," Tsuna muttered, and that was the conversation for the trip.

- o - o -

Gokudera had texted Reborn for directions to the mansion and had received them with no extra comments, such as why he'd ask when Tsuna had been informed. Maybe he'd guessed his student's mood. He knew Tsuna like no one else, and Gokudera wished he were here.

"You're ___sure_ this is the way?" the driver asked him again, peering out at the gardens that lined the long driveway.

"We're going to see our goddamn rich uncle, all right? Keep going!"

Finally the cab stopped, the driver gawking. "This place is ___huge!_"

"It'll do," said Gokudera.

It was like the castle, was his first thought, and he almost shook his head. This looked newer and was more compact, and there were even more turrets than the castle he'd grown up in. The next thing comparison he remembered was the Vongola mansion in Italy, and how he'd looked at the Ninth's house and wondered what he'd have to accomplish to deserve a place there - but this mansion hardly looked like that stately, old house. Four storeys high and built to be impressive, creamy walls offset with dark tiles and gleaming woods. It would definitely do.

Tsuna didn't see that yet. He was looking at an old man striding towards them. The guy looked like the uptight, buttoned-up type to yell about getting off his property, and Gokudera set a sneer on his face and rubbed his Vongola ring. The sneer fell as the man reached them and creaked elegantly into a bow.

"Vongola Tenth. My humble greetings to you and your Storm Guardian."

"Uh - I, I-" Tsuna stared at him but didn't outright deny it, and Gokudera felt a lurch of hope in his chest.

"I am the head of the household staff. I'm afraid that all is not ready yet; to my regret, we're running somewhat behind schedule."

"No, we're early!" Tsuna said, mustering an apologetic grin.

The head butler didn't acknowledge the admission of wrongdoing on his employer's part, which was in line with what Gokudera remembered as good behaviour for servants. "Allow me to take care of the fee," the guy said, gesturing at the cab. Gokudera caught a glimpse of a gun holster as the man's uniform jacket moved. Now that's a Mafioso's butler!

He helped Tsuna towards the house, because once Tsuna stopped leaning on the car it looked like his ankle was already tender. He was wincing more.

"Don't," Tsuna snapped, and added, "If you don't want to," like he was a little embarrassed.

"Of course I want to help," he said, but Tsuna's only reply was to stiffen.

They stopped at the entrance, two huge double doors. Only one was open - how had that old man slipped through that crack? Maybe there was special training.

The butler came trotting up as the cab drove off slowly, driver still gawking, and bowed on the top step. He had a cellphone in hand. "Sir. That gentleman was able to give me the number of a cousin who works in a local hospital, who would help me to get a wheelchair here in no more than half an hour. Would you prefer a standard model or a motorised one?"

"Wha—no, don't bother!" Tsuna looked cornered. "I don't need something like that!"

"The grounds are extensive, sir, and regrettably, we only recently received orders to install elevators in the building and they've not yet been completed. A comprehensive tour will cover a lot of ground, and your injury might worsen."

"It's only my ankle. Really, don't..."

"If the Tenth is willing to wait a moment, some of the burlier gardeners will come and carry you through the house."

"No! No thank you!" Tsuna waved his hands frantically and Gokudera glowered at the old ass-kisser. What the hell kind of idea was that? And he hadn't even straightened out of the bow, like talking to your kneecaps was so polite.

"The Tenth and I would like to see this place alone."

Tsuna froze and then looked away from him. Gokudera ignored that and the way it made his stomach turn over.

The butler nodded. "Then allow me to give you my number, so that you may contact me as necessary. There are walking sticks in the umbrella stand in the foyer, Tenth, if you feel that would be of assistance."

He held the door open for them. The foyer was relatively small, and there were hardly any furnishings, none of it particularly impressive. But what was there was polished and softly gleamed, radiating an impression of richness.

Gokudera glanced back when Tsuna had taken a stick, leaving the butler watching them set off down the plush red carpet. Clearly the man had serious problems - huh, 'the burlier gardeners' - but he was efficient, and chances were that he could put up a fight. Tsuna was feeling weird, and he ___had_ said...

"Tenth? You're not actually, uh, going to shoot that guy?"

"No!" Tsuna said, and then leaned towards his ear to hiss, "Of course not!" He looked around, making sure no one was nearby.

Someone was. The man had pressed himself into the corner made by a cabinet and the wall. He seemed to be shaking.

Tsuna shuffled away from Gokudera. "Um, hello?"

The guy fell full-length on the floor. "Vongola Tenth! My humble greetings! A-a-and to the Storm Guardian!"

"Um. Hello," Tsuna tried again, but even with more authority in his voice the guy still lay there.

"He ___said_ he wasn't going to shoot anyone, so get the fuck up," Gokudera said. "The Tenth always keeps his word!"

"Bless your kindness, Vongola Tenth," the man yelled into the carpet, and hopped up and ran in a flurry of multicoloured fabrics. Gokudera picked one up; it was a big silk handkerchief. He thought he'd got away from fancy hankies at age eight. Were they supposed to act like useless rich brats from now on? At least it wasn't monogrammed.

"The servants wear top hats?" Tsuna mumbled, looking after the guy, and glanced around as if to check.

There was no one else in sight down either length of the hallway, and the only noise sounded as if it came from some distance away. "Tenth," Gokudera said, balling up and tossing the hankie.

Tsuna looked as cornered as the servant had, and Gokudera hesitated before taking a step closer. "About - about being boss. You know - we don't have to be anything we don't want to be. All you have to do is protect your own interests, nothing worse."

"I'm here to see the stupid house," Tsuna said, and started stumping down the hall. If not for the carpet the stick would have made a hell of a noise. "And then leave," trailed back to Gokudera.

___You can't. You can't._ They wouldn't let him, anyway, Reborn and the Ninth. Wasn't that exactly Tsuna's problem?

___You can't._ He wouldn't, Gokudera told himself, this was an off day. Leaving ___them_ wasn't something Tsuna would do.

He followed silently.

- o - o -

"Oh! Vongola Tenth! Storm guardian!"

Humble greetings, every other corner. At least the staff had been well-informed, even if they weren't all as professional as the household head.

"They're already scared," Gokudera said in an undertone, walking as close to Tsuna as he dared. "See? There's no need to do anything more to get them in line."

Tsuna stumped faster. "Is that supposed to be comforting?"

A man with an industrial vacuum cleaner popped out of a room in front of them and bowed as soon as he recognised them, staying that way until they were past.

"You can tell him to stop bowing. Ask. You can ask all of them to stop doing stuff like that."

"They shouldn't have to in the first place." By this time Tsuna had stopped trying to go faster, since it was obvious that Gokudera was pretending to lag behind to make him feel better.

"Telling them something like that doesn't make a difference," Tsuna hissed once a woman with the floor-waxer had jogged ahead. "I'm still stuck as their boss."

"It's not so bad!" That was probably the wrong thing to say, but he had to say ___something_. "Having this position limits your choices, but it also gives you a lot of choices you would never have had!"

Tsuna's mouth opened - and shut again. He blinked. Had that got through to him? He stared straight ahead, and Gokudera waited to see if it was a revelation, if things were okay now.

"You haven't changed?" said the person Tsuna was looking at, walking closer, and Gokudera jumped. He turned around with the full intention of reaming the guy out until the only appropriate response was ritual suicide.

He found that all he could do was yell, "Why the fuck are you wearing a clown suit?"

The man stood in all his baggy-trousered, red and white face-painted glory and said, "Take a guess, kid. ___I'm a clown_. You guys are with the school drama group, right? Better hustle. We're already behind schedule, and you do not want to disappoint the head butler." He mimed a gun with one hand.

They watched him go. His left shoe sprouted flowers from the heel with each step.

"The Vongola mansion has a clown?" Tsuna said.

"Maybe ... for Lambo and I-Pin?"

There was an interlude of bemused silence.

They kept walking - but as people rushed past with more exclamations of 'Vongola Tenth!', Tsuna began to pretend that he could walk faster again. Gokudera watched his determined movements. He'd got so much stronger over the years. Didn't he know? Why didn't he care?

There might not be an answer.

Maybe this really was it. There was no way to make the situation change. Make it better. Tsuna wouldn't understand or even want to - and he'd know that Gokudera couldn't get his side of it either.

"Damn it," Tsuna said softly, staring at the staircase to the second floor. Gokudera trailed to a halt behind him, and followed when he finally mounted the steps. Halfway up Tsuna stopped and leaned against the railings, breathing hard.

They might as well go back to school, or home. But Tsuna hadn't said he wanted to leave yet.

"I'll carry you."

Tsuna looked tired and the kind of annoyed that meant he was experiencing a persistent pain. "Huh?"

"Or we can call those gardeners." He took his cellphone out of the pocket of his school blazer.

"No! That would be weird!"

"Then I can carry you." Gokudera bent, kneeling with one hand on the steps.

"This," Tsuna said, "would be kinda weird too..."

"It will make the tour easier. We'd..." He growled the words. "We'd get done faster."

It looked like Tsuna was scared. Not simply annoyed or uncomfortable or angry, but actually ___scared of him_, and even if Gokudera wanted to be angrier and show it more clearly, that hurt.

"You don't have to."

And you're not getting out of this.

Tsuna ducked the glare and looked up the rest of the staircase, and then awkwardly got on his back, still holding the walking stick. Gokudera straightened, gripping the railing, and then barrelled up the stairs so there wouldn't be time for protests. He caught another quiet 'weird' and blushed furiously and kept going. Tsuna held on tighter.

"It, it's going to be my whole life," Tsuna said suddenly. "Reborn won't say anything, but I think the Ninth wanted me to meet the yakuza so they'd know about us, and a lot of them are mad at us now. It's impossible to escape this kind of life. There are people who live right here in Japan who'd be ready to attack all of us."

"They would've done it before!" Gokudera said. "They attacked you once already, remember? We were still kids then, and we dealt with it!"

"But now they know about all of us, even Haru and Kyoko-chan, and there are groups all over Japan... There's no way to avoid this life anymore, and I've always wanted to."

"You haven't." At another time Gokudera would have hated the obstinacy in his voice. He sounded like a kid. "You fight for us and say you want to stay together."

He stumbled on the edge of the narrow hallway carpet, and stopped focusing solely on Tsuna and the conversation so that he could take in the surroundings. They'd come to the top of the stairs, and this part of the house wasn't as fancy as the rest - servant's wing, probably. Still not shabby, which was good; you couldn't go around pissing off the help.

"Just let me down," Tsuna said, a whine in his voice. "There are people around, and—those times when I say I want to, to s-stay together, Gokudera-kun, I mean it in a ___normal_ way." A loaded pause. At least he knew he should feel guilty about that statement. "It ... shouldn't be forced by something like the mafia..."

"You think I'm forcing myself to stay with you?" Gokudera demanded.

The Tenth went bolt upright on his back, leaning away. "Let me down! I—" and then his voice became a tiny, outraged whisper, "___I am trying to have a serious conversation!_"

The boy in the Arabian Nights costume with a sword halfway down his throat wasn't stopping them, exactly, but even Gokudera had to admit he was distracting.

"Just what the hell is going on?" he snarled, and the boy began pulling the sword out of his mouth. "Fuck it, that takes too long!" Gokudera started walking again, although if it weren't for the fact that he was carrying the Tenth, he'd have preferred to just start blowing things up. "Where's the rest of the staff? Someone better clear this up!"

"I'm calling Reborn!" Tsuna said, and then swore. "My phone is at school!"

Gokudera fished his phone out of his blazer pocket and handed it back to Tsuna. "Reborn-san's on the contacts list. Did he really not mention these freaks?"

"I bet he knew all about this," Tsuna said darkly, the phone buttons beeping, and then he yelled, "Reborn! There are sword-swallowers and clowns and I think the top hat guy was a magician! What's going on?"

Gokudera heard the faint squeak of a reply, and held on harder as Tsuna jerked. "House-warming party? This isn't another weird Vongola tradition, is it?

"Wha—You can't drag everybody over here! Haru has exams, and you know what they're like at her school! And Yamamoto's test! Haahh, that's not even the worst thing. Reborn, I don't want them here. This inheritance thing..." His voice dropped to inaudibility - he sounded scared again.

It would have been bad enough if it was because he didn't want to be boss.

It was worse that it was because of the lion sauntering down the hallway. 


End file.
